This invention relates to an integrated air intake system, particularly for the combustion air of an internal combustion engine, comprising a plastic housing, an air intake manifold, an air filter and at least one additional electric and/or mechanical component.
It is known to manufacture complete air intake systems with all of the components, ranging from the air filter to the fuel injection valves, which are important for conditioning the intake air for an internal combustion engine. Such air intake systems comprise a plurality of components, such as the intake manifold, the throttle valve, the idle air regulator, the fuel distributor, the injection valves, the temperature sensor, etc.
Thus, for example, a system from the firm Siemens AG is known in which the various components are flanged to or arranged on a plastic support. The plastic support is constructed as an intake manifold. One disadvantage of this known system is that, although the several components are combined in one system, the system is very complex and costly to manufacture, particularly because of the number of components. In addition it has to be equipped with a large number of mechanical as well as electrical connecting elements.
It is also known to manufacture plastic intake manifolds by the so-called core melting process. The characteristic feature of this process is the injection of plastic material around a metal core whose melting point is lower than that of the plastic material. By melting out the core, an intake manifold can be manufactured in a single molding step and can largely have any shape while maintaining a high degree of dimensional stability and good surface characteristics. However, in the core melting technique it is either not possible to integrate additional components or mechanical or electrical components in the intake manifold or it is only possible to do so at high cost.